Two new "Splitter" actions for Add-O-Matic
Posted 2 months, 10 days ago by Graffi | | 184 views | Technorati
More I’ve got another batch of actions ready to upload.
Actions!
This first mini set contains two actions, named "Splitter - Horizontal" and "Splitter - Vertical". They’re really quite simple - they just find the center line of your image (either horizontal or vertical, depending on which action you’re using) and create two new layers of the two halves, reversed, with a customizable stroke.
Yeah, I know: they at first seem really ridiculous, but the more I play with them, the more I find them interesting design tools. You can accept the final of the action as your final image (as I’ve done in the examples here) or you can go just a little bit further with them…
To manipulate the two sides, I first ran them through the "Convert to Smart Object" action I posted a little while back. "Smart Objects", in Photoshop lingo, are basically bitmap images converted to vector images, so you can twist & transform & resize them with much less pixelization and blurring than you would get if you edited the bitmap version without converting. (A new post about this is coming soon).
So after converting the two sides to Smart Objects, I rearranged, rotated and resized them to fit the collage I had in mind. A simple drop shadow gave them a little bit of depth.
I turned the Background layer back on, and gave it a bit of desaturation and blur to make it not so intrusive, and there you go - a simple presentation.
Of course you could go further with it, and get really abstract or creative (especially with the Smart Object conversion). You could give each half different color characteristics, or make half B&W and the other half super-saturated, or any other kind of thing you can think of. I post these things not as complete final images (most of the time) but really just as launching pads to get things started. To make your images really pop, it’s up to you and your creativity - experiment!
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Filed in: Actions, Add-O-Matic, Downloads, Elements, Fun Foto FX, PSelements, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements Techniques Flikr group |
Thanks so much. I look forward to using this. The action I really appreciate and use the most is the Enlarge - I would have so much work to do if this was not available.
I bought the Add O Matic several years ago, and just havent been able to use it. Is there a tutorial on this. Perhaps I put it in the wrong place.
Jean